The presence of counterfeit toner cartridges or toner cartridges not specifically designed for a given image forming apparatus can be detrimental to the operation of the image forming apparatus. In a conventional image forming apparatus, the processing of determining whether or not all toner cartridges mounted in the image forming apparatus are regular products (that is, toner cartridges that meet the specifications of the image forming apparatus) is performed at the time of startup. Therefore, there is a case in which much time is required for startup of the image forming apparatus.